Omaha, Part 1

Omaha, Trip 1

At this point I had had it up to my eyeballs with doctors not finding answers and was very skeptical to see another one.  My husband, however, made a deal with me.  He said that I should give this one last doctor a chance, and after that, we were done with doctors, no matter what.  He was adamant about me seeing Dr. Hilgers, who is the founder of the Creighton Method of natural family planning.  In order to even have him consider treating me, I had to meet with someone locally who would train me in charting my cycles.  After meeting her, she seemed a bit “flighty” but I have found that she is absolutely amazing.  She runs a pregnancy help center, speaks all over the country, and still has time to meet with people to teach them how to properly use Natural Family Planning.  Her heart is truly devoted to helping people, especially the unborn.  She taught me all of the details to the Creighton Method.  I had taken my temperature to evaluate my cycles, but this was very different.  This was much more detailed...not difficult, but detailed.  After about 6 months of charting, my charts were sent in to Dr. Hilgers and he made a few suggestions as to what I should be doing.  He put me on thyroid medication, as he found that I had a hypothyroid.  He also put me on amoxicillin to help around times of ovulation.  Lastly, he suggested that I see him in Omaha for an exploratory surgery as well as ultrasounds and bloodwork to see if I was ovulating properly.  We made an appointment for the end of July to go see him.  Because we were going to be there for a week or two, we asked my mom if she would go with us so we had someone to watch Will while I was at all of my appointments.  

We got to Omaha the night before my surgery and checked into our hotel.  It was such a great place!  It was super cheap and served 3 meals a day, plus beer and wine!  (If anyone ever goes to see Dr. Hilgers, be sure to contact me for this information).  I finally got to actually meet Dr. Hilgers the night before my surgery.  He definitely intrigued me.  

As a soccer player, I always kept an eye on those players who wore bright-colored shoes.  I thought colored shoes were perfectly acceptable if and only if that person was the best player on the field.  Then, they had every reason to stand out.  However, if they weren’t the best player out there, I had every reason to harass them the rest of the game.  Dr. Hilgers wore these so-called bright shoes.  He told me that my “unexplained infertility” was a bunch of hoo ha.  There is no such thing.  He told me “there are, however, crappy doctors and lazy doctors.”  I couldn’t believe he said that!  I thought that those were very strong words to say to someone who had been through years of testing with many other doctors.  What if he couldn’t find anything?  He promised me that he would find what is wrong and give me a definitive answer on whether or not I would be able to have biological children.  He also told me that with all of his patients, he was right 95% of the time.  He also asked my husband what his career was.  After finding out that he is an engineer, Dr. Hilgers explained that he sees a lot of engineers here, because engineers want an answer as to how things work, not a band-aid that temporarily hides a problem.  At this point, all I wanted was an answer.  If biological children were possible, I wanted to get pregnant.  If it was not possible, I wanted to be done being a lab rat.  

I had surgery the next day.  He found that I had more endometriosis, probably caused by my last surgery to remove it.  What a kick in the gut.  The surgery I had previously caused me to have more endometriosis!  He also found that one of my ovaries was completely a mess.  Apparently, ovaries are supposed to more somewhat freely, being able to flip back and forth over and under the fallopian tube.  Mine wouldn’t move at all.  There was also more endometriosis that he was not able to get to in this minor surgery and I would need another, more invasive one.  

I then had to stay in Omaha for ultrasounds daily until I ovulated.  Of course, I ovulated late that month and had to stay in Omaha for 10 days!  The nurse doing the ultrasound told me that everything looked great during ovulation and I was releasing healthy eggs that had a chance for fertilization.  My husband was very excited that this was the “perfect” time to conceive, however, the nurse told him, “Honey, if you’re here, it isn’t a matter of timing.  But, hey!  Go ahead and try anyway!”  That seemed to be just fine with him :)

We made the best of our stay in Omaha.  They have an unbelievable zoo there and some really great restaurants.  Although Omaha was not my vacation destination of choice, it was nice being able to spend a lot of time with my husband, son, and mom.

Bad Advice

Here is some advice that was given to us by friends, family, neighbors, strangers, etc.  I wrote this section to get some laughs, not to offend anyone who has given this advice, which is a lot of you! :)  However, it is also to point out that giving advice can be kind of a tricky thing.  After six years of trying to get pregnant, I wasn’t really looking for advice.  Clearly, there was something majorly wrong that didn’t have a “quick fix” solution.  I do appreciate the concern that people who did give this advice were showing me...I truly do have incredible people in my life.  Also, because I have an audience ranging from family to friends to coworkers to former students to strangers, I have had to keep these PG, which means leaving some pretty entertaining ones off the list!

"Buy a dog"-Ummm...who’s met Marty?  Not good advice... 

"Did you try relaxing?  Just don’t think about it!"-I hate this one...do you really think that in 6 years I wasn’t relaxed one time???  There were PLENTY of times that I wasn’t thinking about it!

"Eat more peanuts"-ironic...I have a kid with a peanut allergy

"Stand on your head"-mood killer

"Do bicycles"-also a mood killer

"Did you know that there are certain times of your cycle that you are more fertile?"-Oh yes, I actually learned that in the video I watched in 5th grade with little orphan Annie!  Good grief, how did you not know that???

"Go on an airplane" (no, not the “mile high” club, just something with ovulation?  I don’t know...it didn’t work).

"No hot tubs or hot showers"-I really missed those

"No lap tops"-very sad for my husband

"No alcohol"-ugh... 

"Lots of alcohol"-not a bad suggestion!  

"Go on vacation"-my favorite advice coupled with the one above

"No tighty whities"-husband, not me 

"Hang out with pregnant people"-easy...EVERYONE I knew was pregnant!